Navigation in a hierarchical structured transaction processing system

ABSTRACT

A method performed in a system having multiple navigable nodes interconnected in a hierarchical arrangement involves receiving an input containing at least one word identifiable with at least one keyword, identifying at least one node, other than the first node, not directly connected to the first node, but associated with the at least one keyword, and jumping to the identified node. A transaction processing system having a hierarchical arrangement of nodes and is configured for user navigation among the nodes. The system has an inverted index correlating keywords with at least some nodes in the arrangement so that when the user provides an input in response to a verbal description and the response includes a meaningful word correlatable with a keyword, the system will identify at least one node correlated to the meaningful word by the inverted index and jump to that node without first traversing any other node.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to information processing and, moreparticularly, computer based transaction processing.

NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT RIGHTS

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document, particularly theAppendix, contains material that is protected by copyright. Thecopyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction of thepatent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent andTrademark Office file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In everyday life, networks of choices set forth in a particular order orhierarchy are encountered with increasing frequency. Usually, it isdesired to traverse the network in the most efficient manner possible toaccomplish a particular goal.

In modern mathematics, graph theory is used to study networks ofhierarchical choices. The hierarchical networks can be represented as agraph structure. Graph theory finds practical applications in chemistry,computer science, economics, electronics and linguistics.

A graph structure is a collection of points, called “vertices”, and acollection of lines, called “edges”. Each edge joins a pair of verticesor a single point to itself.

A simple example of a network represented by a graph structure is a roadmap. The vertices represent towns or cities. The edges represent theroads that connect the towns and cities.

Another type of network familiar to anyone who has a telephone is anautomated telephone voice response system, such as commonly utilized bymany large companies, to direct incoming calls to particular individualsor departments or to assist the caller in performing a transaction, suchas making a purchase.

That type of telephone network can also be represented as a graphstructure. When the system answers an incoming call, it transmits averbal description or prompt to the caller: “If you would like to speakto Harry, press 1; if you would like to speak to Fred, press 2”. (Ingeneral, we will use “verbal description” to mean a set of wordsrelating to the subject matter whether presented audibly or in writtenform. The verbal descriptions may range from a few words to an entiredocument worth of text). A first vertex on the graph represents theinitial prompt, which a caller hears upon reaching the telephoneresponse system. If the user's response is pressing 1, calls aredirected along a first edge to Harry, represented by a second vertex. Ifthe response is pressing 2, the call is directed along a second edge toFred, represented by a third vertex. Then, if the chosen person is notavailable, the caller is asked whether the caller wishes to leave amessage. If the response is positive, the caller is directed alonganother edge to the selected person's voice mail, which would berepresented by another vertex of the graph.

In general, whether for a telephone response network or for any otherapplication representable by a graph structure, the caller or user ofthe system will have some goal. By “goal” we mean a combination oftransactions and information accesses which the user seeks toaccomplish. By “transaction” we mean an operation performedelectronically with a user. In general, there will also be a combinationof vertices or nodes in the graph that best represent or are closest tothe goal the user is trying to accomplish. We call these vertices the“goal vertices”.

For the user, the object in navigating the graph is to get from thefirst vertex to the goal vertices. If this is not done as quickly andefficiently as possible the user may become frustrated and give up.Moreover, as the number of possible choices or nodes in the networkbecomes larger, the number of possible pathways between the first vertexand the goal vertices multiplies rapidly. Therefore, the ability toreach the goal vertex can become more difficult, require navigation ofan excessive number of choices or nodes, or discourage a user before thegoal vertex is even reached.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention creates a method for navigating efficiently andnaturally through a series of choices to obtain information, performtransactions, or accomplish some similar goal. The invention isimplemented in a programmed computer that has a hierarchicallyconfigured decisional network that must be navigated as part of theprocessing and is constructed to accept inputs or data and process themin a manner that facilitates navigation of the network vertices moreefficiently.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an example graph representing a simple, generic hierarchicallyarranged transaction processing or decisional system suitable for usewith the invention;

FIG. 2 is an example portion of a graph used to illustrate jumping amongnodes in accordance with one variant of the invention;

FIG. 3 is an example portion of a graph in a simple interactive voiceresponse (“IVR”) system used to illustrate grouping in accordance withone variant of the invention;

FIG. 4 is an example portion of a graph in a simple interactivetelevision program listing used to illustrate another variant of theinvention;

FIG. 5 is an example portion of a graph in a simple geographicinformation system used to illustrate a further variant of theinvention;

FIG. 6 is an example portion of a graph for a simple automated voiceresponse system used to illustrate a more complex variant of theinvention;

FIGS. 7A, 7B, and 8-10 are collectively a flowchart illustrating anexample setup process for use in accordance with an exampleimplementation of one variant of the present invention; and

FIGS. 11-14 are collectively an overall flowchart illustrating anexample process in accordance with a further variant of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In graph theory, mathematicians refer to a “path” from one vertex in agraph to another specified vertex in the graph as consisting of asequence of edges that connect the vertices between the first vertex andthe final vertex. If the path contains an edge sequence that is“closed”, meaning that it loops back on itself, the path is called a“circuit” or a “cycle”. A graph structure is considered to be“connected” if there is at least one path connecting every pair ofvertices.

Our invention is particularly applicable to transactional processing asapplied to instances where graph theory can be used to represent thetransactions as a set of options and when the options are structuredaccording to a connected graph that contains no circuits. We call such agraph a “tree”. We use the term “menu tree” for a network that providesa “menu” of options, typically presented as verbal descriptions, toassist a user in making a series of choices through which he or she isable to accomplish one or more of his or her information access ortransaction goals. Informally, a “menu tree” can be regarded as a seriesof vertices in a hierarchy or ordered pattern, arranged in rows ofincreasing numbers of vertices. More precisely, a “menu tree” can berepresented as a “tree” in which (i) the vertices are all the optionsprovided anywhere in the “menu tree”, plus a first vertex, (ii) everyvertex except the first vertex, i.e., every “option vertex”, isassociated with the verbal description (or such other means) by which a“menu” presents that option, (iii) an edge connects the first vertex toeach vertex that the first “menu” presents to the user as an option, and(iv) each other vertex is similarly connected by edges to every othervertex that the corresponding “menu” presents to the user as an option.As the number of options increases, so does the length of paths from thefirst vertex to goal vertices.

In overview, in accordance with the teachings of our invention, the usercan navigate the graph or tree in a way that allows them to skip fromone vertex to another vertex that may be many rows down the graph ortree and/or where the vertices may not be connected together by an edge.This eliminates the necessity for making many choices.

Particular implementations make it possible to jump laterally from onevertex to another if the navigation enters a wrong branch of the tree orif the user changes his goal. The approach is accomplished throughassociating each vertex with a verbal description (or prompt), andmatching words in users' requests and responses with these verbaldescriptions to enable the selection of vertices that may not bedirectly connected to the user's current location in the graph or treeby an edge.

In some variants, we create a system with the unique ability to learn byincorporating previously unknown words, keyword or synonyms of keywordsso that the system modifies itself to thereby increase the likelihoodthat a user will efficiently and quickly reach the goal.

For purposes of illustration, the invention will be described by way ofexample, first using a series of simple examples followed by a morecomplex example of a more detailed and commercially suitable examplevariant, in the context of a menu-type automated telephone voiceresponse system for a publication, a hierarchical network of the typethat is frequently encountered and easily understood that implements acombination of some of the features of the simple examples in order toillustrate how those features can be combined or overlayed.

It should be understood that the present invention is applicable to awide range of different networks, which can be mathematicallyrepresented by graph structures consisting of vertices and edges andshould not be considered to be limited to the particular applicationdescribed. Representative examples of suitable applications for theinvention include implementing an enhanced and more efficient “Find”function or file system browser for personal computer operating systems,a navigation system for television program listing, document managementor retrieval systems, a “geographic information system” in an automobilethat allows location of addresses or business(es) meeting certaincriteria, or other devices that incorporate some hierarchical navigationaspect as part of its operation.

In order to more fully understand the invention, various independentaspects are now presented below by way of simple illustrative examples.In this manner the teachings of the invention can be understood in a waythat makes it possible to use, overlay and/or combine those aspects in abeneficial manner in an implementation of the invention. Depending uponthe particular implementation of the invention, one or more of theaspects may be used together in various permutations and/orcombinations, with the understanding that different permutations and/orcombinations may be better suited for particular applications or havemore or less benefits or advantages than others.

The underlying scenario common to all these basic examples is that thereis a hierarchical arrangement to the possible choices that can beillustrated in a form of “tree” structure.

FIG. 1 is an example graph 100 representing a possible hierarchicallyarranged transaction processing or decisional system suitable for usewith the invention. The individual boxes 102-120 are referred to as“nodes” and each represents a specific choice or option in thehierarchy. For purposes described in more detail below, each node isarbitrarily uniquely identified in some manner. In the example of FIG.1, the individual nodes 102-120 are numbered 1 through 10 starting fromthe top node 102 in the hierarchy.

Each “node” is associated with exactly one verbal description, forexample in the case of an airline system, a verbal description relatingto some aspect of the reservation process. Each such descriptioncontains “key” words that are deemed to be of importance and other wordsthat can be disregarded. For example, one node may have the associatedverbal description “Would you like to make a reservation?” In thisdescription, there is only one “key” word—“reservation” deemedimportant, so all of the other words in the description can be ignored.

A level in the hierarchy below that one may be used to obtain furthernarrowing information, for example, using the verbal description “Is thereservation for a domestic or international flight?” In thisdescription, the terms “domestic” and “international” are “key” words.Similarly, the word “flight” could be a “key” word, for example, for asystem that involves not only airline travel but also rail and/or cruisetravel or it could be an “ignored” or stop word for a purely airlinerelated system because it has minimal meaning in that context. Again,the other words can be ignored as well.

The unique identification of each node allows the creation of a list ofall the key words and their associated nodes so that, if a key word isduplicated in two or more nodes, it need only be listed once. Forexample, a hierarchical tree related to “pens” might have nodes forball-point pens, fine point pens, medium point pens, fountain pens,felt-tip pens, quill pens, erasable pens, etc. By using this approach,one could list the keyword “point” once, but associate it with each ofthe nodes where that keyword appears by using the unique identifier foreach node where the term appears.

In this manner the keywords are obtained from the collection ofavailable descriptions found in the particular application in which theinvention will be used. In addition, each particular node where thekeyword appears is associated with the keyword. Thus, with respect tothe pen application above, the keyword “point” might appear in nodes 2,3, 6, 7, 13 and 15. Similarly, the keyword “erasable” might appear innodes 3, 4, 5, 6 and 22. An index, as described more fully below,associating these keywords with the nodes containing them is thencreated, for example:

-   -   point: 2, 3, 6, 7, 13, 15    -   erasable: 3, 4, 5, 22

By making use of these associations the “tree” can be negotiated byallowing presentation of relevant verbal descriptions for the nodesassociated with a term, irrespective of where in the hierarchy they are,thereby causing a “jump” to a particular node without necessarilytraversing the tree in the rigid hierarchical manner.

Various examples will now be presented to illustrate certain conceptsrelated to the invention. It should be understood that while theseexamples are presented in the context of things and likely experiencesof ordinary people, the same approach can be applied to other forms oftransaction processing including navigating through hierarchicallynested data files in a computer system, pattern analysis or imageprocessing, etc. the term “transaction” as used herein relating totraversal through a hierarchy to a goal, not mathematical calculationper se.

Moreover, the specific formats used and presented in these examples arepurely for illustration purposes. It should be understood that othertechniques for interrelating data, such as hash tables, direct orindirect indexing, etc. can be substituted in a straightforward manner.Thus, for example, the relationship between the word and a node could beconfigured such that the location of the word in a list as the “n-th”item could be used as an index into another list containing the nodescorrelated to the list. A similar approach could be used for thethesaurus, the important aspect relative to the invention being therelationship among certain words and the node(s) in which they occurand, where applicable, the relationship between certain words and“synonyms” for those words, not the data structure or its form or formatwhereby that information is kept or maintained.

EXAMPLE 1

Example 1 illustrates, in simplified form, how an index is used to jumpamong nodes with reference to FIG. 2. In this example, the hierarchicaltree 200 represents a portion of a more complex tree specificallyinvolving possible decision relating to fruit and a decision between twospecific types of fruits, an apple and an orange.

In prior art hierarchical trees, navigation of this graph 200 wouldnecessarily involve going through the “fruit” node 202 in order to reachthe “apple” 204 or “orange” 206 nodes. As a result, assuming this simpletree was part of a larger tree for an on-line supermarket that promptedthe user for what they wanted to purchase, the exchange would be bothrigid and time consuming. For example, in response to a prompt “What doyou want to purchase?” if the response was anything other than “fruit”traversal to the “fruit” node 202 could not occur. At the point in thetree that would lead to the “fruit” node 202, neither apple nor orangewould be an acceptable response.

In accordance with the invention, assuming the only relevant keywordsfor that portion of the tree were “fruit”, “apple” and “orange”, aninverted index would be created that includes an association of “Fruit”with the top node 202, “Apple” with the bottom left node 204, and“Orange” with the bottom right node 206. As shown above, thatassociation can be created using node identifiers, in this example, thenode identifiers 1A01, 1A02 and 1A03 are arbitrarily assigned and used.Thus, the information can be stored in a file, for example, as follows:

-   -   Fruit, 1A01    -   Apple, 1A02    -   Orange, 1A03

Accordingly, to navigate the system 200, when a response to a verbaldescription is provided by a user, possible keywords are identified inthe response and used to search the index and identify any node to whichthe response may be directed, irrespective of the hierarchy. Thus, auser response of “an orange” to a verbal description located above the“fruit” node 202 in the hierarchy, for example, “What would you like tobuy today?” would cause the system to identify “orange” as a key wordfrom the response, search the index, and directly identify node 1A03(206) as the node whose verbal description should be presented next,thereby avoiding the need to traverse intervening nodes, for example,through the “fruit” node (202) 1A01, at all. This illustrates an exampleof a simple jump according to the invention.

EXAMPLE 2

Having illustrated a simple “node jump” a more complex (and likely)scenario can be shown. In this example, the Example 1 graph of FIG. 2applies, but relevant portion of the index is as follows:

-   -   Fruit, 1A01    -   Apple, 1A02, 2F09    -   Orange, 1A03

As a result, there are two nodes relevant to the keyword “apple” onebeing the node 204 in the portion of the graph shown in FIG. 2 and onein the node uniquely identified as 2F09 located somewhere else in thehierarchy (not shown).

In this example, a user response containing the keyword “apple” wouldidentify nodes with identifiers 1A02 and 2F09. In this case, and unlikethe prior art, the verbal descriptions from both nodes would bepresented to the user, likely in alternative fashion. Thus, if the userdid not want an apple, they wanted apple cider, node 2F09 might be moreappropriate because it is part of the “drinks” portion of the overallhierarchy.

Thus, presenting the user with the verbal description from both nodeswould likely result in a jump to the portion of the graph nearer to node2F09 since it is closer to the user's goal thereby speeding up theprocess and avoiding potentially confusing or frustrating the user.

EXAMPLE 3

While the verbal descriptions associated with various nodes willgenerally be chosen to accurately represent the node, in accordance withcertain variants of the invention, it is possible to create a situationwhere a user response takes them away from their ultimate desired goal.Nevertheless, by using the teachings of the present invention, the usercan often still be brought to their goal quicker than possible with theprior art because the user need not rigidly trace through the hierarchy.This is accomplished by virtue of the “grouping” aspect inherent in someimplementations of the invention.

This example illustrates the “grouping” aspect using a simplified graph300 representing a portion of an airline reservation system as shown inFIG. 3.

In particular, the graph of FIG. 3 can be thought of as part of a verysimple interactive voice response (“IVR”) system.

As described above, each node is uniquely identified, for example, bythe numbers 1 through 7 and the identified terms “Reservation”,“Domestic”, “International”, “Business Class”, “Economy Class” aredeemed the relevant keywords. Note, there is no requirement for a the“keyword” to be a single word, in some implementations, keywords couldbe single words, phrases of two or more words, or even some other formof information like a specific data pattern.

Again, an inverted index is created as described above associating thosekeywords with the nodes, in this case:

-   -   Reservation, 1    -   Domestic, 2    -   International, 3    -   Business Class, 4, 6    -   Economy Class, 5, 7

Assuming that the top node is assigned the number 1, its two child nodes(Domestic and International) are assigned the numbers 2 and 3, and thegrandchild nodes (i.e. at the lowest level in the hierarchy) have beenassigned numbers 4, 5, 6, and 7 taken from left to right each node canbe uniquely located. Note that the last two entries in the invertedindex are each associated with two nodes, 4 and 6 in the first case, and5 and 7 in the second.

Using the above, the concept of grouping of nodes from different partsof the graph (i.e. nodes that are not siblings or nodes that do not havea common parent) can be explained.

Presume that the response to a verbal description presented as aninitial query of “What do you want to do?” was “Make a business classreservation.” In this case there are two keywords present, “reservation”and “business class”.

Depending upon the particular implementation, as noted previously, theverbal descriptions associated with each identified node could bepresented together or in sequence. Alternatively, and as is the casehere, a set of rules can be established, for example, such that if anidentified node is a sub-node of another identified node, only theverbal description of the sub-node(s) is provided because of inherentredundancy. Thus, since both “business class” nodes 310, 314 aresub-nodes of the “reservation” node 302, the verbal descriptionassociated with the “reservations” node can be suppressed if it can bedetermined that business class necessarily implies reservations.

In this example, a search of the inverted index would identify nodes 4and 6 (310, 314) from different parts of the tree are associated withthe keywords in the query, and thus the system, in presenting the verbaldescriptions from each, in effect, alters the tree structure and groupsthese nodes in the result. Thus, the combination of result nodespresented depends upon the user query or response, not thatpredetermined by the graph structure itself.

Of course, the goal would still not be reached because of the ambiguitycaused by “Business Class” being under both “Domestic” and“International”. However, that ambiguity can be handled by suitablewording of the following verbal descriptions and whether they arecombined or provided sequentially or by other nodes.

EXAMPLE 4

A persistent and further drawback present in the prior art is theinability to operate if any term other than the specific allowed termsare provided. Thus, in an IVR of the prior art, providing anything otherthan the recognized term(s) will likely result in meaningless repeat ofthe same inquiry by the IVR or an error.

Advantageously, the teachings of the present invention allow forconstruction of a more flexible system than available in the prior art.Specifically, we can incorporate a thesaurus to accommodate synonyms forthe keywords.

Example 4 illustrates the addition of a simple thesaurus as an aspect ofa system so that a synonym of a keyword may also be used by the systemto jump to the desired nodes in the graph. Example 4 is discussed withreference to a portion 400 of an interactive television program listingsystem as shown in FIG. 4.

Such a system implementing the invention will allow a user to speak toor interact with a device to look for programs of his choice by timeslot, genre, favorite actor or actress, etc.

This example, as with the other examples above, use an inverted index,in this case one where each node 402, 404, 406 is uniquely identified bya string of six characters, the portion of which corresponding to FIG. 4is shown as follows.

-   -   Programs; acgyct    -   Sitcoms; ifgnxh    -   Films; vnymos

Since a common synonym for “Films” is “Movies” a thesaurus can becreated associating the two. Depending upon the particularimplementation, thesaurus terms to be equated to the keywords can betaken from a standard thesaurus or can be custom created for theparticular application. In addition, the equating of terms can be donein any of a myriad of different ways, the exact implementation detailsof which however re irrelevant to the invention, but a fewrepresentative examples of which however are contained herein forpurposes of illustration.

In one example case, the equating can be done on a purely word basis.For example, a file can be constructed such that one or more single wordsynonyms are directly associated with an index word, for example asfollows:

-   -   Movies, Flicks—Films

Alternatively, the synonyms can be equated with the node identifier(s)corresponding to the index term, for example as follows:

-   -   Movies, Flicks—vnymos

In the former case, the system would still have to search the indexafter the thesaurus has provided the proper index term(s). In the lattercase, the thesaurus provides a direct link to the respective node(s) sothat re-searching is not required.

In the system of Example 4, a user who provides the input “Movies” wouldcause the processing to occur as follows.

The system would search the inverted index of keywords and fail tolocate “Movies” as a keyword. As a result, it would search the thesaurusand find that the word “Movies” is a synonym that can be correlated witha keyword. At this point, depending upon the particular thesaurus, itwould either return to the inverted index and search using the synonymkeyword “Films” and return the result as the node 406 identified by“vnymos”, or go directly to the node 406 identified by “vnymos” basedupon the thesaurus entry.

Of course, it is possible (and likely) that in actual usage a synonymwill be associated with more than one keyword. For example, “Comedies”may be associated with both the keywords “Sitcoms” and “Films”,resulting in, for example, the following entry in a thesaurus:

-   -   Comedies—Sitcoms, Films

In this case, a search for “Comedies” would result in the systemidentifying that the synonym was associated with nodes 404, 406 for both“Sitcoms” and “Films”, and it would return both terms or nodeidentifiers corresponding to the two keywords as the result.

EXAMPLE 5

Advantageously, the thesaurus concept can be extended further so that aninitially unknown word (i.e. a word that is neither a keyword nor athesaurus word) can be learned by the system and added to a thesaurusfor future use.

This example is described with reference to FIG. 5 which is a portion500 of a larger system graph as part of a very simple “geographicinformation system” found in some automobiles, kiosks and elsewheretoday. Such a system enables a user to, among other things, identify andget information about different locations in an environment. Forexample, information about particular types of restaurants in an area.

In this example, the inverted index for the portion 500 shown in FIG. 5could look as follows:

-   -   Restaurants, 1    -   Pizza, 2    -   Burgers, 3    -   Chinese, 4

A user issues the following query to the system “fast food” in order tofind a quick meal.

The system's search of both the index and thesaurus would result in the“term”, in this case a phrase, not being found in either. In this case,it is an unknown phrase, and the system has to learn the “meaning” ofthe term.

To do this, the system first offers the verbal description from the toplevel node(s) 502 to the user—in this example, just “Restaurants”. Theuser presumably provides a positive response. (Of course, in a realsystem, it is possible and likely there are more top level nodes thanjust one. In that case, the user would be offered two or more of thesenodes, and would have to select “Restaurants” to match his intendedrequest.)

Continuing on, once the user has responded affirmatively, the systemmoves down the tree and offers the verbal description from each of thechild nodes: “Pizza” (504), “Burgers” (506), and “Chinese” (508).Presuming that the user picks “Pizza”, the transaction interaction wouldlook something like this:

User: Fast food

System: Restaurants?

User: Yes

System: Pizza, Burgers, or Chinese?

User: Pizza

At this point, the system has “learned” for the time being that it canequate “fast food” with “pizza” and can add “fast food” as a synonym to“pizza” in the thesaurus.

This user, who first used the unknown term “fast food”, had to trace apath down the tree. However, now the system is able to associate “pizza”with “fast food” and create or add a thesaurus entry to reflect thisassociation, for example as follows:

-   -   Fast food—Pizza

Thus, the system has learned a meaning of the initially unknown term“fast food” and has added it to the thesaurus for future use.

As a result, a subsequent uses of the same term “fast food” will enablethe system to jump directly to the “pizza” node 504.

EXAMPLE 6

This example illustrates how additional meanings for an existingthesaurus term or phrase can be learned by the system for future use,whether the existing thesaurus term or phrase was an original thesaurusterm or one previously learned with continuing reference to FIG. 5.

At this point, the inverted index is unchanged as:

-   -   Restaurants, 1    -   Pizza, 2    -   Burgers, 3    -   Chinese, 4

Additionally, presume the following entry now exists in the thesaurus.

-   -   Fast food—Pizza

Suppose a new user now issues the query “fast food” as above, but with“Burgers” rather than “Pizza” in mind.

Based upon the thesaurus, the system would go directly to the “Pizza”node. However, the user will reject “Pizza”, having “burgers” in mind.By rejecting the “Pizza” node 504 description, the user indicates thatthe “Pizza” node 504 is not of interest. The system is thereforeconfigured with a further set of rules, in this case one in which thesystem goes up in the hierarchy to a higher node, the top node 502 inthis portion of the example, and provides the verbal descriptions forthe other nodes 502, 504, 506, 508 so as to cause a tracing down thetree. This can be illustrated by the following “dialog”:

-   -   User: Fast food    -   System: Pizza?    -   User: No    -   System: Restaurants?    -   User: Yes    -   System: Pizza, Burgers, or Chinese?    -   User: Burgers

This time, although this user has had to trace through at least aportion of the path from a higher-level node 502 of the tree 500, thesystem has learned yet another meaning for “fast food”. It now adds thismeaning to the earlier entry in the thesaurus, for example as:

-   -   Fast food—Pizza, Burgers

It has now learned two meanings for future use. If a user were now toissue the query “Fast food”, the system would respond with the verbaldescriptions from the nodes 504, 506 corresponding to both Pizza andBurgers.

Thus, the system can keep learning new meanings of terms based on theintended meanings of users “deduced” from the interactions between usersand the system.

Of course, the nature and extent to which the system will incorporatesynonyms and/or keywords in a continual learning process will not onlydepend upon its construction and rules, but also on the quality of theoriginal thesaurus and the quality of the initial inverted index. Inaddition, where in the tree the system jumps if the user rejects theinitial meaning(s) offered by the system can be handled different waysin different implementations.

For example, the system can always jump to fixed ancestor(s) (either thetop node or a parent or some ancestor(s) at an intermediate point) or afixed level (e.g. halfway from the top). This approach has the advantageof being simple to implement, but it has the problem of inflexibilitybecause it may be relatively efficient for certain graphs and associatedverbal descriptions, but not for all. For example, if two or more nodes'verbal descriptions are offered and rejected, the relevant node selectedwould have to be common ancestor(s) of the offered nodes. In otherwords, with reference to Example 6 which is part of a larger tree, goingup to the “Restaurants” node 502 would mean going to the parent of the“Pizza” node 504 rather than all the way to the top in the larger treecontaining the portion 500 shown.

A more flexible alternative uses the information recorded in thethesaurus to find every synonym for “pizza” in the thesaurus and collectall the other keywords associated with those synonyms. Then the systemwould search the inverted index to identify all the nodes associatedwith these other associated keywords and identify the most commonancestor of all of those nodes and go to it. By using the information inthe thesaurus in this way the system makes use of known properties ofthe one meaning of “fast food”, which is “Pizza”, to construct anintelligent hypothesis about where the other meanings of “fast food”might lie in the graph. This allows the user to reach another meaningwith the least effort and allows the system thereby to learn what thenew meaning of “fast food” is more efficiently.

EXAMPLE 7

Of course, just as it may be desirable to create implementations to addmeanings to the thesaurus, it may be equally or more desirable to causean existing meaning for a thesaurus word to be dropped, for example, dueto relative lack of use. This process is described with continuingreference to FIG. 5 and the associated inverted index, particularly withrespect to the thesaurus entry resulting from the most recent example.

-   -   Fast food—Pizza, Burgers

In this example, presume that there have been several uses of the query“fast food” and that the user(s) issuing these queries have almostalways selected “Burgers” and almost never “Pizza”.

In accordance with another implementation of the invention, the systemis constructed to track the frequency of use of a particular term in thethesaurus. Depending upon the particular implementation, the trackingcan be done for all entries in the thesaurus, for only those added aspart of the “learning” process, or for some specified combinationthereof.

In addition, some specified criterion is used to determine when, andwhich terms, if any, should be removed from the thesaurus. Dependingupon the particular implementation the criterion can be based upon usagerelative to time, usage of a particular term relative to some otherterm(s), term usage relative to overall thesaurus usage, or simplyelimination of all added terms not used since the last purge.

Thus, presuming that the system has kept track of the frequency of useof different meanings of “fast food”, and that “Pizza” does not meet thecriterion for a sufficiently high frequency, the meaning “Pizza” can bedropped as a synonym for “Fast food” and the entry (after purging) wouldlook as follows:

-   -   Fast food—Burgers

Thus, a further enhanced implementation can be constructed so the systemis dynamically updating the thesaurus, either adding meanings ordropping meanings for existing and/or initially unknown words.

EXAMPLE 8

A further advantage to the invention is that, in some implementations,it can be configured so that, when there are multiple relevant nodes tobe presented, an associated ranking can be used to determine the type,method or order of presentation. For example, the ranking can be basedupon the frequency of use of particular nodes, which is tracked in theseimplementations, so that the most frequently selected or used nodes arepresented first, more prominently, or in a particular manner.

For example, this can be illustrated by continuing from Example 7, wherethe thesaurus entry was as follows:

-   -   Fast food—Pizza, Burgers        Under the assumption that the system has been tracking the        frequency of usage of the “Pizza” node and the “Burgers” node        and each has been accessed an identical number of times. When a        user enters the query “Fast food”, as above, the system presents        the user with both the “Pizza” node 504 and the “Burgers” node        506, but because it tracks usage and the usage is the same, it        presents them in the order they are listed, i.e. “Pizza” and        then “Burgers”. However, at this point, the user's selection        will cause one entry to have a greater frequency of usage        relative to the other entry, for example a selection of        “Burgers” will make it have a higher frequency of usage and,        accordingly, a higher ranking for the next instance of use.

Thus, the next time the system will be presenting both the “Pizza” and“Burgers” nodes to a user, the “Burgers” node 506 will have the higherfrequency of usage and, accordingly, will be presented first, or moreprominently, or in some other specified manner because of its ranking.If the frequency reverses with use so that the “Pizza” node 504 outranks“Burgers” node 506, then the “Pizza” node 504 will supplant the“Burgers” node 506.

EXAMPLE 9

A further variant of Example 8 allows the node rankings to be used toprune the nodes themselves. In this variant, a criterion can bespecified, typically zero usage over a long specified period of time,that is used to remove an entire node. This is advantageously madepossible because of the system's ability to “jump” among nodes. Thus, itmay occur that a node within the tree is never accessed, but a childnode of that node is. In some variants therefore, when this state existsfor a sufficiently long period of time, the system is constructed todelete that node. It should be understood that, if handled properly,this process will not even affect the “learning” process because, evenif no user action ever directly causes the node to be presented, if thelearning process causes the node to be presented the node's accessfrequency will be non-zero and it will not be “pruned”.

In addition, by tracking access frequency on a node basis, a qualitativeevaluation of the hierarchical system can be made and visualized. Thismakes it possible to review the overall hierarchy after some period oftime and periodically optimize it based upon the result instead ofrelying purely upon the dynamic optimization that inherently andnaturally flows from use of the teachings of the invention.

Having now described various component aspects of different variantsimplementing the invention, by way of the above examples, it should beunderstood that the “jumps” can occur from any node to any node, i.e.vertically and/or laterally and to another node that is higher, lower oron the same “level” as the node from which the jump is made. All mannerof vertical and lateral jumps from multiple nodes to multiple nodes arepossible.

In addition, it should be understood that in some applications (likedocument retrieval systems) the verbal description from the identifiednode may be the one issued whereas, in others (like an IVR system), theverbal descriptions for the children of the identified nodes may be whatis presented. Nevertheless, in both cases, the process as describedabove by way of example will be the same or directly analogous.

Having described the various aspects individually a more commerciallysuitable example, employing a combination of the above examples, can nowbe presented with reference to FIG. 6 which illustrates a simplifiedexample of an “interactive voice response unit” (IVR) hierarchy 600 thatmight be used in the airline industry. Of course, a real menu tree usedin an IVR may have any number of nodes from several, up to a thousand,or more. For example, a tree with 4 branches from each node and whichhas 5 levels uniformly would have 1365 nodes. As shown in FIG. 6, thetree 600 is a hierarchical tree and consists of the following nodes andbranches:

-   -   Initial start (node a0) 602    -   domestic flight arrival information (node a1) 604    -   domestic reservations (node a2) 606    -   international flight arrival information (node a3) 608    -   international reservations (node a4) 610        The node 604 identified by a1 is a service node with        pre-recorded information.        The node 606 has two child node a 2, first/business class (node        a5) and economy (node a6).        The node 608 identified by a3 is service node with pre-recorded        information. The node identified as a4 has three child nodes        identified as first class (node a7), business class (node a8),        and economy (node a9).        The nodes 612, 614, 616, 618, 620 identified as a5, a6, a7, a8,        a9 are all service nodes (i.e. terminal nodes) where a        respective customer service representative will interact with        the caller.

Of course, a real system may also have a choice at the top level or ateach level for a live operator and may even have a choice to go back tothe previous menu.

Even for such a simple example, in a traditional interactive voiceresponse system, the caller would have to listen to several choices andthen traverse a path down to a service node. Someone interested inbusiness class reservations on a domestic flight would have to traversethe path (a0, a2, a5) for example. This involves listening to multiplechoices at each level of the tree (e.g. first a prompt at a0, then fourprompts offering a1, a2, a3, and a4 at the next level, at which thecaller would choose a2, and finally two prompts offering a5 and a6, atwhich level the caller would choose a5 and then wait for the operator)and then making a choice by pressing an appropriate number on thetelephone dial pad or alternatively saying the appropriate number. Incertain cases, he may make a mistake: he may choose internationalreservations when he is interested in domestic reservations or somethingsimilar (simply by pressing the wrong number on his touch-tone telephoneor saying the wrong number). If he does, then he has no choice but todisconnect the phone and redial the number (or if the system has abacktracking option, then he can backtrack, but even here he has wastedvaluable time).

In contrast, in accordance with a system implementing the invention, thecaller would be able to say what he was looking for (e.g. “I want tomake a domestic business class reservation”) and the system wouldidentify and respond with the appropriate node 612 (e.g. a5 in this caseor the relevant customer service representative directly). In otherwords, it would enable the caller to skip to the correct node(s) withouthaving to trace through the entire path. If the user makes a mistake, hecould ask for something different wherever he finds himself in the tree,and skip laterally or vertically to his preferred choice.

The system implementing the invention can further include an option thatthe entire transaction (e.g. the making of the reservation) would becarried out through natural language interactions with the systemwithout the intervention of a human customer service representative. Inother words, all the details of his domestic reservation are obtained bythe system and the system updates a database accordingly and issueswhatever commands are required (e.g. the mailing of a ticket) to becarried out by some human representative later.

While it is true that some more advanced interactive voice responsesystems available today allow for natural language interactions, theyare highly constrained natural language interactions with relativelylittle or no intervention by a human operator. However, unlike withsystems using the invention, those systems still require direct pathtraversal through the hierarchy (i.e. jumping to non-connected nodes isnot contemplated or possible, let alone allowed). Moreover, such systemsstill typically use a limited list of keywords, which the caller isrequired to use to correctly traverse to the next connected node.

In contrast, variants of a system implemented in accordance with theinvention can incorporate an automatically generated or updatedthesaurus, which greatly expands the range of words or terms a callercan use. In these variants, the user is not restricted to parroting thehighly constrained script as required by other interactive voiceresponse systems, nor is the user limited to traversal to a connectednode. In these more complex implementations of the invention, a systemcan be constructed that is able to learn new words or terms that it maynot have understood the first time. For example, if a user asks for“coach class” and the system does not have the word “coach” or thephrase “coach class” in its keyword list or in its current thesaurus,then on this first occasion, it offers the user a traditional path downthe conventional tree. But it tracks what the user did, what node of thetree the user went to, and on this basis, it learns a new response to“coach class”. The next time a caller (either the same person or adifferent person) uses the words “coach class” the system does not offerthe traditional path as it did the first time, but instead it offers anew set of nodes based on what it learned the first time. Thus, in suchimplementations, the thesaurus is a dynamically changing entity,continually updating itself by learning new words and terms and learningnew “meanings” (i.e. new actions or responses) for existing terms.

Implementations according to the invention can also allow novelgroupings of nodes to be presented to the caller based on his query. Ifhe asks for “economy class” without specifying whether he wants aninternational or domestic reservation, then the system would offer himthe nodes a6 and a9 (appropriately phrased in natural language), andallow him to further choose whether he wants international or domesticreservations, something current systems do not offer. In other words,the system can pick out the relevant responses from different branchesof the tree and pool them together and offer them to the caller.

This functioning of the system, by which it is able to skip aroundlaterally or vertically in the tree, is enabled by the associating ofnatural language (i.e. human language) verbal descriptions with eachnode, and then using these as an initial basis for the navigation,augmented, in some variants, by a dynamically changing thesaurus thatgreatly expands its range and comprehension.

Thus, based upon a conceptual understanding of the above examples,further details of the process will now be presented.

The flowcharts of FIGS. 7 through 14 are illustrative of a functionalexample of the general method of a more complex variant the invention aswould be implemented in software according to the flowcharts in thiscase for a newspaper subscription application. It should be understoodthat particular details are provided in the description below merely forcompleteness or because they are necessary or helpful for forming anunderstanding of the particular implementation. They are not to beconsidered essential for implementing the invention. Similarly, detailsunrelated to or unnecessary for understanding the invention have beenomitted to avoid confusion.

An example implementation is described and contains two programs, apreparatory program, illustrated in FIGS. 7-10 and a transaction orquery processing program, illustrated in FIGS. 11-14. In addition, aparticular software implementation fairly corresponding to theflowcharts of FIGS. 7-14 appears in the Appendix A that follows. Theprogram contained therein, is written in the “C” programming languagefor execution on any personal computer having a processor, memory,input-output, etc. capabilities to run the particular application in itsintended environment.

Broadly, the first program process of FIGS. 7-10 constructs an invertedindex and an application-specific thesaurus and the second programprocess of FIGS. 11-14 uses those constructs in a transaction processingsystem to interact with a user.

In the preparatory program of FIGS. 7A, 7B and 8-10, the shorthand namesof files that the program uses and the contents of the correspondingfiles are as follows. Notably, both the process parts shown in FIGS. 7Aand 7B as well as the process part shown in FIG. 8 are indicated asstart points. This is because they are each independent of each other inthat any of the three could start before any other or two or more couldbe run concurrently. Thus, it should not be presumed that they aremutually exclusive or any one is per se required for the invention.Moreover, it should be understood that any one or more could have beenundertaken at a different time, by a different entity, or for adifferent application. Whether one or more of the portions shown in FIG.7A, FIG. 7B or FIG. 8 are the starting points, the starting point foractual operational processing will be the same.

The file named ‘p’ contains a list of prompts or verbal descriptions ina hierarchical relationship (i.e. they can be visualized or arranged ina tree-type graph).

The file named ‘w’ contains documents that are related to the prompts orverbal descriptions in ‘p’. For example, ‘w’ could contain a trainingmanual for customer service personnel or a website document that islikely to contain material that is related to the queries customers mayhave. This file is used to create a thesaurus.

The file named ‘f’ contains forms that are used to elicit relevantinformation from customers. They have fields like ‘name’, for example,which would be used by the system to ask and record a caller's name.

The file named ‘x’ contains an index associating the forms in ‘f’ withterminal prompts or descriptions in ‘p’. Once a terminal prompt isreached in the process, the corresponding form from the file ‘x’ isactivated, and the system proceeds to elicit information from the user.

The file named ‘s’ contains a list of application-specific stop words,many of which are high-occurrence and/or generally uninformative wordslike ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’ or ‘from’ or words with a high-occurrence in forthe particular application such that they have little meaning, forexample, ‘fly’ in an airline reservation system, ‘street’ in anavigation system, ‘file’ in a computer search tool. These areeliminated from ‘p’ and ‘w’ and ‘f’ before processing, because theydon't carry any useful information for the application.

The file ‘t.cfg’ contains the thesaurus and inverted index that will beconstructed by the program. Of course, in alternative variants, thethesaurus could be a separate file from the inverted index file andeither or both could be made up of multiple files.

The file ‘1.cfg’ is a file that is used to store newly learned words. Aswith the t.cfg' file, the ‘1.cfg’ file need not be a separate file, itcould be part of ‘t.cfg’, or part of a separate thesaurus and/orinverted index file. Similarly, the ‘1.cfg’ file could be made up ofseveral files.

With reference to FIGS. 7A, 7B and 8 through 10, the processes ascarried out by the first program are as follows. It bears noting that,although the process and its components are presented by way of examplein a particular order, unless a specific process component is expresslystated to necessarily have to occur at a particular time or after someother particular process component, or two process components mustnecessarily occur in sequence because one relies upon completion of theother before it can start, no order should be implied or consideredrequired since the order in different implementations may be differentand may vary based upon the particular programmer, programming languageand/or computer involved.

The files p, w, f, x, and s are each read and processed as follows. Itshould be understood that the order of processing of file ‘p’ relativeto file ‘f’, or their respective sub-processing components, althoughshown sequentially, could be done in a myriad of ways including doingeach of the reading extracting and storing concurrently or as a commonoperation (i.e. reading for both is done before extracting for both,etc.).

Specifically, keywords are extracted from p______and from f______. Theseare initially just all the words or terms contained in the prompts in p.The keywords are stored, for example, in a temporary file.

Similarly, thesaurus words are extracted from w. These are initiallyjust all the words or terms in w. They are also stored, for example, ina temporary file.

Stop words are loaded from s (902) and stop words and duplicate wordsare eliminated from keywords and thesaurus words stored in the temporaryfiles.

The thesaurus is constructed in accordance with FIGS. 9 and 10 describedin overview as follows:

-   -   a. Increment the file of thesaurus words with keywords from p        and f remaining after elimination of stop words.    -   b. Create a matrix of thesaurus words as row words (or words        listed along the rows of the matrix) against keywords as column        words (or words listed along the columns of the matrix).    -   c. Count the number of co-occurrences of each row word with each        column word of the matrix in the documents contained in w and        fill in that number in the corresponding matrix cell. (For        example, a co-occurrence of a pair of words may be defined as        that pair occurring in the same paragraph. If w is made up of a        hundred paragraphs, then take each pair of row word and column        word and count the number of times this pair occurs within the        space of each of the hundred paragraphs in w. For each pair, the        pair may co-occur zero or more times in a paragraph and add up        the number of co-occurrences in all the paragraphs in w.)

This process yields a matrix filled with normegative integers in eachcell. It is then possible to consider each row of numbers as a vectorassociated with the corresponding row word. When viewed geometrically,these vectors, one for each row word, form angles with each other in amulti-dimensional space. As a result, we can calculate the cosine ofeach such angle by computing scalar products for the angles. Thus, wecompute the cosines of the angles formed by the vectors associated witheach pair of row words.

The cosine values for all pairs of row words and column words arecalculated and stored, for example, in a new matrix.

For each row word, the top ‘n’ cosine values are identified as are thecorresponding keywords. For example, in an airline system context, ifthere are two row words ‘coach’ and ‘economy’, where ‘economy’ is also akeyword (originally from p and/or f), and if the cosine value of thispair or words is among the top ‘n’ cosines for the word ‘coach’, then‘economy’ is identified as a synonymous keyword for coach.

A new file can then be created, formatted for example, by listingthesaurus words on the left (e.g. coach), and against each thesaurusword, its associated keywords (e.g. economy). This is referred to as aninverted index (i.e. the thesaurus) of row words and their keywordsynonyms. Essentially, this file will now contain words like ‘coach’coupled with its particular alternative meanings, one of which may be‘economy’. The user interactive transaction processing program, thesecond program, will later use this thesaurus file when a caller uses aword like ‘coach’ in his query to determine the relevant keywords (like‘economy’). This will enable the program to find the relevant promptwith which to respond to the user.

Optionally, to provide the system with a set of prompts or verbaldescriptions with which to respond to a user, another inverted index iscreated using the files p, f, and x. This index will contain a list ofkeywords from p and/or f associated with the prompts in which theyoccur. Thus, when a user uses a synonym like ‘coach’ in a query, thesecond program will look up the thesaurus, find the keywordscorresponding to it (e.g. ‘economy’), and then look up the invertedindex to find the prompts corresponding to ‘economy’ and othercorresponding keywords.

Once both the inverted index and thesaurus files have been created, thefile t.cfg can be created from them for use by the second program.

One example of the program flow for a fairly generic transactionprocessing program implementing one variant of the invention isillustrated in the flowcharts of FIGS. 11 through 14. This example isconfigured to incorporate a collection of several of previouslydescribed simple aspects. To demonstrate the functions of this programand how this program operates, for context we use an example interactionthat a calling customer might have with this example system.

Following the example is the Appendix contains that program codeessentially implementing a variant of the invention largelycorresponding to that of FIGS. 7 through 14.

The particular example we use for purposes of illustration is for anautomated telephone system for a newspaper, like the New York Times. Forsimplicity, every item in the flowchart is not traced through since, anunderstanding of the process with respect to one path will be sufficientto allow an understanding of the other paths.

The example begins with “I want to subscribe” uttered by the caller tothe system. We will assume that the first three words of the query (i.e.“I”, “want”, and “to”) are stop words and the last word (i.e.“subscribe”) is neither a keyword nor a thesaurus word.

The process as carried out by the second program are as follows:

The files t.cfg, 1.cfg, f, x, and s are read (1102).

The keywords, thesaurus words, prompts from t.cfg. are loaded (1104), asare the learned words from 1.cfg. Initially, 1.cfg will be empty as theprogram has not yet learned any new words. The forms and index of formsagainst prompts from f and x respectively are loaded, as are stop wordsfrom s.

The program opens the interaction with a greeting (1106) and anelicitation of the first query from the caller (1108). This might be:“Thank you for calling the New Herald. How may we help you?”

The caller then utters his or her statement: “I want to subscribe”.

The stop words in the statement are first eliminated, leaving behindjust the word “subscribe”.

The statement is then processed in the following way:

The keywords and the thesaurus words remaining in the query areidentified (1202, 1204) by comparing with the list in t.cfg and 1.cfg.As we have assumed that “subscribe” is neither, we have none.

The prompts that best match the identified keywords and thesaurus wordsare selected (1206). As there are no such words identified, there are noprompts selected.

The program arrives at a decision in the flowchart: are any nodesselected? (1208). Since the answer is in the negative, the program willfollow the branch and select the top level node (1218). (Note: These toplevel prompts are the ones at the top level of the menu tree.) Thiscompletes the prompt selection process. The process then proceeds to thesecond part of the query process.

The process proceeds with another decision: has a single leaf promptbeen selected? (1210). Since the top level prompts are selected (ofwhich there are more than one and also none is a leaf prompt), anegative answer is the result.

These prompts or verbal descriptions are issued to the user (caller) andelicit another response. Assume that the offered verbal descriptions areas follows:

System: Are you calling about subscriptions? System: Is there a problemwith your paper or delivery? System: Would you like information aboutthe New York Times website? System: Are you calling aboutadvertisements? System: Are you calling about something else? Assumefurther that the caller responds as follows: User: I am calling aboutsubscriptions.

As a result, the program returns to selecting verbal descriptions byidentifying the keywords and the thesaurus words remaining in the queryby comparing with the list in t.cfg and 1.cfg (1202, 1204).“Subscriptions” is now synonymous with a keyword and it is identified.

The program will again select verbal description(s) that best match theidentified keywords and thesaurus words (1206).

For example, assume these are:

System: Would you like to order a subscription? System: Would you liketo give a gift subscription? System: Would you like to change youraddress or change any other information?

The program then arrives at a decision branch (1208) in the flowchart:are any nodes selected? Since the answer is affirmative, it follows thatbranch and exits the prompt selection process and returns to the queryprocess.

This begins with another decision box: is a single leaf node selected?(1210). The answer is no, since three prompts have been selected.

Next, these verbal descriptions are issued to the caller and the systemwill await his response (1220). We assume the caller responds asfollows:

-   User: I want to order a subscription

The program will again return through a loop to the prompt selectionprocess (1202, 1204, 1206) where the program will identify the keywordsand the thesaurus words remaining in the query by comparing with thelist in t.cfg and 1.cfg. “Order” and “subscription” are now identified.

Verbal descriptions are selected that best match the identified keywordsand thesaurus words. Now assume this is just the prompt “Would you liketo order a subscription?” from the three descriptions above.

The program will then arrive at a decision branch (1208) in theflowchart: are any nodes selected? Since the answer is affirmative, itfollows that branch and exits the prompt selection process and returnsto the query process to again arrive at a decision: has a single leafnode been selected? (1210). This time the answer is yes, a single prompthas been reached, which is also a leaf prompt, since it is at the bottomof the menu tree.

This is followed by another decision: any verbal descriptioncorresponding to the node? (1212). The program checks t.cfg and findsthe answer is no.

The branch then leads to yet another decision (1214): is a form forverbal description available? The answer by checking the index x is theyes branch. This leads to the portion of the flowchart of FIG. 13.

The form is processed in the following way:

The first part is a decision: is it a response form? (1302). The answeris no.

The system then issues questions to the caller based on the form andaccepts information back (1304). The questions are of the form “Pleasetell us your name”, “Where do you live?”, “Do you want an annual orhalf-yearly subscription?” etc. The caller provides the information tothe system.

It repeats the information the caller has given the system and asks ifthe information is correct. Let us assume the user confirms that theinformation is correct.

The system then calls an external routine to store the information in adatabase. The routine returns another form to the system (1306) andreturns in a loop to the question: is it a response form? (1302). Sincethe form contains questions about the payment, based on the type andperiod of subscription selected by the caller, the answer will benegative.

The system then issues these questions to the caller and the callerprovides the required information (1304).

The system then repeats the information and gets a confirmation from thecaller.

The information is passed to another routine (mentioned in the form) toupdate the database. This routine (1306) then returns a response formand again returns in the loop to the question: is it a response form?(1302). This time the answer is yes. The system then issues a response(1308) thanking the caller for the subscription, and exits this processreturning to FIG. 11.

The system now exits the query process as well since the caller's queryhas been completely processed and the corresponding actions taken by thesystem. It now returns to the main part of the program.

The next process in the main part of the program is a question: is therean unknown word in the caller's query? (1112). The answer is yes, sincethe word “subscribe” in the initial query was not known to the system.This invokes the portion of the flowchart of FIG. 14.

The system therefore has to learn this previously unknown word:

The learning process begins with a decision: is the word already in1.cfg? (1402). The answer is no, since 1.cfg is initially empty and theword has not been encountered before.

The corresponding “NO” branch is followed and the word is added to thelist of learned words (initially empty) with keywords from the finalsingle leaf prompt that was selected (1404).

The system then records these changes in 1.cfg (1408) and returns to themain part of the program in FIG. 11. It has now learned the meaning ofthe initially unknown word “subscribe”.

Next, the program asks the caller if he wishes to continue (1114) (i.e.are there any further queries). We assume the answer is no and thesystem thanks the user and exits.

Now, having described the example traversal of one path through thesecond program with reference to the flowchart, an example dialogue forthe path traversal that has taken place is presented so the completetransaction can now be understood.

Dialogue:

Caller: I want to subscribe System: Are you calling about subscriptions?System: Is there a problem with your paper or delivery? System: Wouldyou like information about the New York Times website? System: Are youcalling about advertisements? System: Are you calling about somethingelse? Caller: I am calling about subscriptions System: Would you like toorder a subscription? System: Would you like to give a giftsubscription? System: Would you like to change your address or changeany other information? Caller: I want to order a subscription System:Please tell us your name Caller: Bertrand Russell System: Where do youlive?

The dialogue continues in this way with the system eliciting therequired information from the caller.

Having demonstrated traversal in a system where the system wasconstructed to learn when an unknown word is used, what happens thesecond time a caller uses the same word “subscribe” in a query after ithas been learned by the system can now be demonstrated. Thisdemonstrates the power of including the optional feature of learning inthe program.

In this case, the dialogue that occurs when a new caller uses the word“subscribe” following the above is now presented.

Dialogue:

Caller: I want to subscribe System: Please tell us your name Caller: J.L. Austin System: Where do you live?

Thereafter, the process continues. Notably, the system has now learnedthe correct response to the query “I want to subscribe”.

OTHER VARIANTS

Having described several simple and more complex examples that make itpossible to use the invention, other variants can now be presented.Examples of such optional functions that can be incorporated into othervariants, individually or collectively, include:

-   -   a) creating the thesaurus by providing access to a collection of        multiple documents and determining synonymy based on sufficient        similarity of meaning with the keywords as measured by the        frequency of co-occurrence of the keywords in the collection of        documents;    -   b) identifying words in the user's response by recording the        response for future learning;    -   c) parsing out of a response all non-stop word unknown terms or        keywords;    -   d) identifying synonyms for all non-stop terms in the user's        response;    -   e) cycling between user and system responses until the user        reaches a vertex (i.e. verbal description) that enables him to        carry out his goal and updating the thesaurus when the goal        vertex is reached by associating the recorded previously unknown        words in the user's response with the keywords that are        associated with the verbal description reached by the user;    -   f) recording, when the goal vertex is reached, the pairs of        synonyms in the user's responses and the keywords that are        associated with the verbal description reached by the user;    -   g) removing associations between keywords and their synonyms        from the thesaurus that have not been accessed more than a        specified amount of times within a specified period (this can be        based upon a parameter set in the system by the system's        administrator or can occur as part of program maintenance or        updates);    -   h) selecting the verbal descriptions that best meet the user's        goal as indicated by the keywords and synonyms in the user's        response by identifying the keywords in the user's response        and/or the keywords corresponding to synonyms in the user's        response and computing a degree of match between each verbal        description and the identified keywords, in accordance with        conventional linguistic processing techniques;    -   i) computing the degree of match between verbal descriptions and        identified keywords by utilizing the pairs of synonyms in user's        response and the keywords associated with the verbal        descriptions reached by users as previously recorded;    -   j) responding to the user on the basis of verbal descriptions        selected by presenting the user with verbal descriptions that        best match the user's previous response;    -   k) for “best match” variants, in the event that even the best        matches have a low degree of match, the best “n” verbal        descriptions are presented to the user (“n” being a number        representing a predetermined system parameter);    -   l) for “best match” variants, in the event that the best matches        have a low degree of match, the user is automatically connected        to a human operator, when or if a human operator is available;    -   m) for “best match” variants in the event that the best matches        have a low degree of match, the best “n” verbal descriptions are        presented to the user, along with an option of being connected        to a human operator when or if a human operator is available;    -   n) presenting the user with those verbal descriptions that best        match the user's previous response in order to elicit any        information from the user that may be required to accomplish the        user's goal;    -   o) recording information elicited from a user in a database for        future use;    -   p) selecting multiple verticies in the graph structure that are        not connected to a previously selected vertex, based upon        parameters associated with nodes correlated to keywords and        synonyms in a user's response;    -   q) selecting a vertex in the graph structure in the same row as        the previously selected vertex based upon the keywords and        synonyms in the user's response; and/or    -   r) updating the thesaurus by adding words from a user's response        that are not in the thesaurus.

Finally, it is to be understood that various variants of the inventionincluding representative embodiments have been presented to assist inunderstanding the invention. It should be understood that they are notto be considered limitations on the invention as defined by the claims,or limitations on equivalents to the claims. For instance, some of thesevariants are mutually contradictory, in that they cannot besimultaneously present in a single embodiment. Similarly, someadvantages are applicable to one aspect of the invention, andinapplicable to others. Thus, no particular features or advantagesshould be considered dispositive in determining equivalence.

It should therefore be understood that the above description is onlyrepresentative of illustrative embodiments. For the convenience of thereader, the above description has focused on a representative sample ofall possible embodiments, a sample that teaches the principles of theinvention. The description has not attempted to exhaustively enumerateall possible combinations or variations, for example, those arising outof the use of particular hardware or software, or the vast number ofdifferent types of applications in which the invention can be used. Thatalternate embodiments may not have been presented for a specific portionof the invention, or that further undescribed alternate embodiments maybe available for a portion of the invention, is not to be considered adisclaimer of those alternate embodiments. One of ordinary skill willappreciate that many of those undescribed embodiments incorporate theminimum essential aspects of the invention and others incorporate one ormore equivalent aspects.

1. A method performed in a system having multiple navigable nodes interconnected in a hierarchical arrangement comprising: at a first node, receiving an input from a user of the system, the input containing at least one word identifiable with at least one keyword from among multiple keywords, identifying at least one node, other than the first node, that is not directly connected to the first node but is associated with the at least one keyword, and jumping to the at least one node.
 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising: providing a verbal description associated with the at least one node to the user.
 3. The method of claim 1 further comprising: searching a thesaurus correlating keywords with synonyms.
 4. The method of claim 3 wherein the searching further comprises: identifying the at least one word as synonymous with the at least one keyword.
 5. The method of claim 1 further comprising: determining that the at least one word is neither a keyword nor a synonym of any keyword; and learning a meaning for the word so that the word will be treated as a learned synonym for at least one particular keyword of the multiple keywords.
 6. The method of claim 5 further comprising: adding the word to a thesaurus so that, when the word is input by a subsequent user, the word will be treated as synonymous with the at least one particular keyword.
 7. A method performed in connection with an arrangement of nodes representable as a hierarchical graph containing vertices and edges connecting at least two of the vertices, the method comprising: receiving an input from a user as a response to a verbal description associated with a first vertex; analyzing the input to identify a meaningful term that can be associated with at least one keyword; selecting a vertex in the graph structure that is not connected by an edge to the first vertex, based upon an association between the meaningful term and the at least one keyword and a correlation between the at least one keyword and the vertex; and jumping to the vertex. 